Amadeus
Amadeus tells a story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from Antonio Salieri
perspective. The story begins with the scenes where Salieri tries to kill
himself. He keeps repeating that he killed Mozart and he deserves the
punishment. Then, he was admitted to a hospital and a young priest come to him
to hear his confession and to offer him the God’s forgiveness. Salieri does not
want the God’s forgiveness so he tells a story to the young priest. He begins
his story by saying that he loves music as a child, however his father opposed
to his dream. The disapproval makes his love for the music grew stronger. Due
to the passion he has, he even made a sincere vow to the God saying that he
would dedicate himself to Him if he would be given a chance to pursue his
interest. As if the God answers to his call, his father suddenly died. So he
went to the Vienna and learn music. He managed to get through many hurdles and
achieve a post as a court composer. During that time, he always heard about the
genius Mozart. He was curious about Mozart and was curious to know whether the
genius would be reflected upon his personality and presence. To his
disappointment, Salieri found out that Mozart was actually a perverted and
playful young man.From that time, he had a bad impression towards Mozart.
However, he could not deny that Mozart had the god given talent. The feeling of
envy had made him blamed God for giving such a talent to those who did not
deserve the talent while leaving him feeling worthless as if his dedication to
Him is not enough. On the other hand, Mozart was blessed in such a rich
environment where he was particularly groomed to become a musical prodigy.
Salieri with an envy started to plan a sabotage to Mozart. As a result, Mozart
faced a lot of hardship. Despite of all the sabotage, Salieri could not refrain
himself from loving Mozart’s work. He hates himself to feel that way, however
that was his true feelings. Before Mozart died, he was the one besides him
instead of his wife. Well, even though he had a bad intention of extracting the
requiem from Mozart and to let him die, but sill it was a moment where he
sincerely worked hard to finish up his rival’s work.
The character
Antonio Salieri
I believe Salieri is actually a good person. However, the threat and
anxiety that he felt towards Mozart has lead him to become a sort of manipulative
person. He might have envy as a way for him to cope with Mozart’s threat. Not only
that, Salieri also might have a greater sense of external locus of control in
associating the situations that happened to him. That was also the reason why
he was so angry with the God for not giving him the talents that he wanted to
have. He also perceived that he can be like Mozart if he was brought up in a
rich environment that thought the value of music instead degrading the music.
The only situation where he showed a high degree of internal locus of control
was when he blamed himself for the Mozart’s death because he asked the corrupted
maid to give him some drug that affect Mozart’s health. In addition, I think he
had a low sense of security for himself as he thought that Mozart will take
over his place and overshadowed him when in fact Mozart did not think that way.
Themes
This movie brings upon the topic of jealousy and envy towards a prodigy.
I think this theme is relevant to almost all people when they face a genius. I
believe some people might have a thought of becoming like them and to acquire
the talent like a prodigy however that is just not happening so envy will be a
choice for them as a way to cope with the feeling of devastation for not having
the talent like them. For normal people, jealousy will just be manifested
throughout their feeling and cognitive not their action. While, Salieri actually
did manifested his envy through his action by providing difficulty in Mozart’s
career path in this movie. I think we can learn a lot from this theme as
Salieri has showed sabotaging was not the way to handle his envy, instead he
felt bitter because deep down inside he knew that he could not do what Mozart
can do. So he felt guilty and at the end destroying himself. In addition, cognitive dissonance was also
being portrayed in the film. Salieri admired Mozart’s work but at the same time
hating Mozart for having such talent. As he could not accept the truth he began
hating Mozart. Devising plans to kill Mozart was one of his way to reduce the
dissonance that he was feeling at that time. However, he did not know that by
killing Mozart will not reduce his dissonance but adding up to the dissonance
that he felt and making him more miserable. This was because, the feeling of
hate for the Mozart and at the same time still amazed with his work despite his
death was added to the feeling of guilt for killing Mozart’s music career. Hence, making his life worthless to always be
compared to the dead people. He was also forced to live to see Mozart’s work getting
the appreciation while his music was getting forgotten. Personally, I think
that it is not healthy to have such an envy and resentment towards a person who
has more than we have. Everyone has their own uniqueness and advantages. For
example, it is so sad when Salieri could not see a good quality that resides
within him. He was a good teacher and still have a talent to make a good music.
So rather than hating people’s work, he should have strengthened his talent and
that will make him a more credible talent in the market.
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